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enquire into the Public Service to see if any reductions could be made
in expenditure \ithout lesseni_ng its efficiency, either by cons olidation
of offices or by reducing the numb er of persons emp loyed in each
department. In its report issued on June 26 covering all departments ,
including the charitab le institutions , the Commi ssion complained of too
much milk being given to the chi ldren in the Orphan School, and too much
bread and meat to the paupers in the Invalid Depot attached to the General
Hospital .
Although it did not suggest retrenchment , it recommended that
the system of management by Boards be replaced by direct Governmental
responsibility comb ined \'lith a larger measure of support for these
institutions from the Public.
To those who hoped that a more liberal, socially enlightened
approach to life had finally taken root, the Commission 's report was a
nasty shock Hhich demonstrated only too clearly the limited, fragile
structure of modern ph ilanthropic ideas in Hobarton.
Reaction \'l as
immediate and severe. Once more the progressive, popular element -
Crowther, Hunter and Hal l - attacked the conservative official group;
Crowther concentrated on the General Hospital , Hunter on the Commission's
accusations of extravagance by Boards of Management, and Hall on the
charitable institutions.
Their letters , directed to the members of both
Houses of Parliament per favour of the Mercury, were, each in its own way,
a remarkab le clarion cal l to the Government for a modern, efficient,
unbiased and humane approach to the city's social prob lems .
Of Hall's many communications to the press , possibly these three ,
written on July 24, July 31 and August 4, 1863, were amongst the most
appeling and defy fitting comment.
was not touched by words such as these :
Surely, it was a heart of stone that
These destitute incurab les deserve from us all that human
beings can ever claim from their fellow creatures in the way
of charity. They are only paupers because we have excluded
them from our hospitals to give our care to more numerous
though less pitiable subjects . We are bound to treat them
there not as paupers but as patients . The patient who leaves
an ordinary well ordered hospital on receiving the fearful
sentence that his case is hopeless , has to bear not alone with
that doom of despair, he has to lose at the same moment every
alleviation \'lhich his sufferings had hitherto received. We
see numb ers suffering agonies of weariness , or losing their
last chances of recovery, because they are unab le to sit on the
hard benches, which are the only alternatives to their beds .
At the Brickfields depot, the beds are straw only, not even
a hair mattress , or an air cushion, or a water bed, for many
bed-ridden for months, with backs mortified from long continued
pressure . 5
5
Mercury, July 27, August 4 & 15, 1863.